Wages in America Are Too Low for the 30% Rule to Work for Renters Anymore • Hacker News Board

Re: Wages in America Are Too Low for the 30% Rule to Work for Renters Anymore

#21

Post by BugsJustFindMe » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 1:35 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #4

[flagged]

> immigration depressed wages of Americans

Immigration creates more jobs than it takes away and generates net wage growth. Immigrants don't just work. They also consume and they also start their own businesses. This has all been measured to death. There's no reason to ignore the research on this.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-immigration-means-fo...

https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/immigrants-...

> "Because of these factors, economists have found that immigrants slightly raise the average wages of all U.S.-born workers."

> "Ironically, the result is exactly the opposite of the usual narrative. It seems like immigrants actually improve the economic outcomes for native-born workers."

Re: Wages in America Are Too Low for the 30% Rule to Work for Renters Anymore

#22

Post by api » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 1:35 PM UTC

foolfoolz wrote: post #5

gonzalohm wrote: post #2

Is it the wages or that shitty one bedroom apartments go for $2000+

one bedroom (and living alone) is a luxury and always has been

Stop this race to the bottom stuff. You know what else is a luxury and always has been?

HVAC, transportation, anything beyond maybe emergency medicine, Internet access, education, drinkable tap water, …

The fact that the bulk of the US population has these things is what makes us a first world country.

Re: Wages in America Are Too Low for the 30% Rule to Work for Renters Anymore

#23

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 1:35 PM UTC

bonsai_spool wrote: post #9

mc32 wrote: post #4

[flagged]

> You know even on 2008 Krugman, who is known for making predictions that end up being wrong, was saying immigration depressed wages of Americans. Do you have evidence of this claim?

The common criticism is his prediction about the internet:

https://web.archive.org/web/19980610100009/http://www.redher...

> By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's.

Re: Wages in America Are Too Low for the 30% Rule to Work for Renters Anymore

#24

Post by gravypod » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 1:35 PM UTC

foolfoolz wrote: post #5

gonzalohm wrote: post #2

Is it the wages or that shitty one bedroom apartments go for $2000+

one bedroom (and living alone) is a luxury and always has been

Is this true? I think SROs were very common in the US in metropolitan areas.

It was common plot point in media to: 1) kick your kids out at 18, 2) if two men lived together they were assumed to be dating.

Re: Wages in America Are Too Low for the 30% Rule to Work for Renters Anymore

#25

Post by sethjgore » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 1:35 PM UTC

foolfoolz wrote: post #5

gonzalohm wrote: post #2

Is it the wages or that shitty one bedroom apartments go for $2000+

one bedroom (and living alone) is a luxury and always has been

I would think greed is a luxury and always has been, more than a simple adobe and living alone.

Re: Wages in America Are Too Low for the 30% Rule to Work for Renters Anymore

#26

Post by jqpabc123 » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 1:36 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #4

[flagged]

Never the less, without people undermining wages ...

Never the less, without corporations hiring people to undermine wages there would be pressure to pay higher wages for low skill low education workers, no doubt.

But this isn't just about "low skill low education workers". Higher skilled and educated workers are making less too.

There is a systemic effort to gut the middle class. And once this effort is complete and 3rd world status has been achieved, the upper class will slowly start to realize that they have also gutted the market for the goods and services that they monopolize.

Re: Wages in America Are Too Low for the 30% Rule to Work for Renters Anymore

#27

Post by bonsai_spool » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 1:36 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #13

bonsai_spool wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You know even on 2008 Krugman, who is known for making predictions that end up being wrong, was saying immigration depressed wages of Americans. Do you have evidence of this claim?

See Krugman vs Krugman: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/paul-krugma... My bad, it was 2006.

"Because Mexican immigrants have much less education than the average U.S. worker, they increase the supply of less-skilled labor, driving down the wages of the worst-paid Americans."

That doesn't sound like the claim you made. It is also a prima facie reasonable claim to make.

Re: Wages in America Are Too Low for the 30% Rule to Work for Renters Anymore

#28

Post by mrweasel » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 1:36 PM UTC

ajmurmann wrote: post #18

antonvs wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not both? Wages are too low and rents are too high. The common factor: the capital class screwing over the working class.

Look at real, median household income. It's been going up and up. The things that have gone up in relative cost are housing (because we heavily regulate building it) and premium services like healthcare and education because of Baumol.

Probably also doesn't help that to many people want/need to live in the same few areas. If you could take your office job (which in most cases would work perfectly fine) and move to a less popular area, 30% might be rather high.

Re: Wages in America Are Too Low for the 30% Rule to Work for Renters Anymore

#29

Post by whoknowsidont » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 1:36 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #13

bonsai_spool wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You know even on 2008 Krugman, who is known for making predictions that end up being wrong, was saying immigration depressed wages of Americans. Do you have evidence of this claim?

See Krugman vs Krugman: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/paul-krugma... My bad, it was 2006.

That source isn't even able to directly lay out the claim, it spends 5 paragraphs IMPLYING Krugman changed his position for hand-wavy political reasons.

But lacks any direct evidence that he actually did so. It misquotes things and really grasps at straws to make a point, holy moly.

It's so disingenuous lmao.

Re: Wages in America Are Too Low for the 30% Rule to Work for Renters Anymore

#30

Post by sethjgore » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 1:37 PM UTC

ajmurmann wrote: post #18

antonvs wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not both? Wages are too low and rents are too high. The common factor: the capital class screwing over the working class.

Look at real, median household income. It's been going up and up. The things that have gone up in relative cost are housing (because we heavily regulate building it) and premium services like healthcare and education because of Baumol.

Does median represent the normal anymore?